For more information on the 2009 Mozambique election see: 2009 Presidential, Assembly of the Republic & Provincial Assemblies Election

Description of Electoral System:

The President of Mozambique is both Head of State and Government; and is elected by an absolute majority through a universal adult franchise. The President may only serve two consecutive five year terms, but becomes eligible for re-election after the lapse of a further five years. The President appoints and dismisses the Prime Minister and exercises executive power directly or through the Council of Ministers.

The Assembly of the Republic consists of 250 members elected every five years by proportional representation with a 5% entry threshold. 248 seats are elected from the 12 provinces, each acting as a constituency with the number of seats allocated to each province based on population distribution. Two members are elected by expatriates, one each for Africa and Europe.

Politics in Mozambique

Event

  Exercise: EISA - Mozambique Parallel Vote tabulation exercise

Mozambique held its 3rd municipal elections on 19 November 2008 and EISA in collaboration with the Electoral Observatory, a local coalition of eight civil society organisations, will conduct a parallel vote tabulation exercise in 13 of the 43 municipal races.

Symposium

Strengthening Democratic Governance through APRM - A civil society dialogue

The Third Annual EISA Symposium was held on 21 - 22 October  2008, Maputo, Mozambique entitled "Strengthening Democratic Governance through APRM - A civil society dialogue"

 International Meeting

Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation

The International meeting of the endorsing organisations took place on 22 - 23 October 2008 in Maputo, Mozambique.

Workshop: Effective Electoral assistance workshop

EISA supported the fifth edition of the Joint Training on Effective Electoral Assistance, organized by the European Commission, United Nations Development Programme and International IDEA, in Mozambique, Maputo on 23 to 28 June 2008.

Workshop: Training in voter's roll testing methodologies

EISA worked in collaboration with the Mozambican Electoral Observatory to conduct a workshop on 12 March 2008 in Mozambique

Mozambique’s independence from Portugal in 1975 was followed by a bloody 16-year of civil war waged between Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO) and the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO). FRELIMO, which emerged from the militant freedom movement and took power after a bitter and protracted military struggle with the Portuguese, found support primarily from the Warsaw Pact countries. In 1976 Mozambique closed its border with the settler state of Rhodesia, and began to provide material and moral support for anti-Rhodesian guerrillas already operating from within its borders. RENAMO was founded by the Rhodesian government to destabilise Mozambique, but later drew its support from the South African apartheid government. 

The military pressure exerted by South Africa led to the Nkomati Accord of 1984 in which Mozambique committed itself to curbing anti-Apartheid military activities in the country in exchange for the termination of South African assistance to RENAMO. Large areas of the countryside were devastated by war and drought, and several towns were besieged by RENAMO forces. South Africa reneged on their side of the undertaking and the situation in the country became very difficult, prompting the government to embark on negotiations with RENAMO.

The war ended with a General Peace Accord (GPA) signing by the warring parties in the early 1990’s. Sustained high levels of economic growth followed, but proceeded from a low base and its benefits are unevenly distributed, so that the majority of the population remains extremely poor. Between 1992 and 2005 three general and two municipal elections were held, all of them won by FRELIMO party and its candidates. The opposition, led by RENAMO either boycotted the elections or contested the results and relations between the two parties have been conflictual and marked by mutual suspicion.

Previous elections

DID YOU KNOW? At 34.8%, Mozambique has the highest level of representation of women in parliament in the SADC.

In the 2009 Assembly of the Republic national election, FRELIMO won 74.66% of the vote and 76.4% of the seats, RENAMO won 17.69% and 20.4% of the seats and Movimento Democrático de Moçambique (MDM) won 3.93% of the votes and 3.2% of the seats. 16 other parties contested but none achieved the 5% vote threshold necessary to quality for representation (For more details see: 2009 Assembly of the Republic national results).

In the concurrent Presidential election FRELIMO’s Armando Guebuza won 75.01% of the votes, followed by Afonso Dhlakama of RENAMO with 16.41% and Daviz Simango of MDM took the remainder of the vote(For more details see: 2009 Presidential election results).

Next elections

The first Provincial Assembly elections will be held in late 2014. The next presidential and Assembly of the Republic elections are due in November 2014.